GDC 06: Xbox 360 Design Post Mortem

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Microsoft's internal team delves into the creation of an HD console.

By Douglass C. Perry

Few people may have known this, but internally at Microsoft, the original Xbox was referred to as the Hulk. Yes, the Incredible Hulk. Microsoft's first stab at console creation was a big, beefy machine that, bulging from underneath a cross-hatch black surface, was itching to burst free. The Xbox 360 in comparison? During the lecture, "Xbox 360: Post Mortem on the Design of a Next-Gen Console," Russ Glaser and Paolo Malabuyo, members of Microsoft's Entertainment Experience Group, showed an image of the late great Bruce Lee. The photo showed Lee, posed for an attack, inhaling and poised right before he unleashed that deadly quick set of blows. That image was an icon from which Microsoft's team drew inspiration and a kind of metaphor as they explored the system's design.

In development for 20 months, the Xbox 360 was based on many values, just one of which was the image of a machine designed to attack. Microsoft wanted to be clear, open, consistent, athletic, and mirai. We're not sure what "mirai" means, nor do we understand the concept of the acronym "OCCAM," spelled using the first letters of each of those words, but to Microsoft they meant a lot.

All kidding aside, Microsoft worked with two design teams, Hers, from Japan, and Astro, from the US, and through a highly iterative process in which both design teams worked collaboratively, they came up with the final Xbox 360 design. As shown in or early coverage of the Xbox 360, the design ranged somewhere from mild to wild on a vertical scale and architectural to organic on the other. The Xbox 360, we suppose, is closer to organic and mild than architectural and wild. Malabuyo explained that the logo and iconography of the game drew from the design of the system, a slightly backwards approach to marketing, but it worked.

Designing the dashboard or desktop, Microsoft explored many iterations with an international staff to get the design right. They were only permitted 4 MBs in which to design the dashboard, which uses 450 total screens, compared to the Xbox's 45 (the first system also had 250 MBs to use, in comparison).

With even the littlest of things, Microsoft wanted to deliver a clean, smart design that challenged traditional ideas, from the desktop to the packaging. The box in which the system comes was designed with nine languages on it each saying, "Welcome." The team even did research on what the size of the box would mean to retailers, how the system should sit in it, which items should be laid on top, and so forth. They specifically made sure the warranty wasn't the first thing you saw when you opened the box, which so many other products do. They figured that kind of placement sends the wrong message to consumers. That is what's called double irony.

On the topic of design glitches, Glaser addressed the issue of disc-scratching (after the panel concluded). He explained the 360 doesn't have a foam buffer to soften the disc when it's moved as consumers shift the Xbox 360 with the disc is in the tray. He said Microsoft is working to solve this issue with hardware solutions in the upcoming 360 units. When? He wouldn't say.

Compared to Xbox, which was aimed specifically at hardcore gamers, the team's goal, when designing the Xbox 360 dashboard, was to appeal to the hardcore gamer, the digital enthusiast, and the casual gamer. The team went through Heuristics evaluations, 60-plus in all over a 12-month period. They went and found consumers from all over the world to test and play with the interfaces, four of which made the final cut. Microsoft named them Pilot, Slice, Loop, and Concertina. Pilot was the one with the best responses. It featured a sphere on the right hand of the screen that grew or shrunk depending on which topic you choose. But Microsoft ultimately went with the Concertina design partially from gut feeling and partially because the team felt it best represented the information cleanest and clearest. The final Concertina design is what Xbox 360 owners use today.

The early interface was designed using Flash, but was later created in XUI, Xenon User Interface (pronounced "Zooey"), a Microsoft proprietary tool. Due to Glaser's dislike of letterboxing and the need to use one screen that worked for both wide-screen and regular screen sizing, the game system was authored in a 14:9 format. The screens were authored in 14:9, slightly squeezed into 4:3 and stretched and cropped into 16:9, which shows a little excessive background. They spent several months figuring out the best fonts and sizes to accommodate these changes.

In the end, Microsoft's design team followed these core principles: 1) lead with a design, validate with data; 2) most everything, in principle, should be two clicks away. The two clicks theory isn't a rule, as many gamers, Microsoft learned, are willing to mine into pages as long as there is a clear and easy way out to the top. 3) Keep the engine under the hood -- there is no need to show off special levers and technical stuff; users don't need it; 4) Embrace your limits (schedule, memory, etc.); 5) Remember that art is creativity without constraints, and design is creativity within limits; 6) Simplicity is hard work and perception is reality; 7) Design for change and evolution (Microsoft plans to provide regular updates to the dashboard in the upcoming years); 8) Perfection is impossible. Magic isn't; and finally, 9) the holiday season comes around the same time each year, so keep that in the back of your mind.

"We built an iceberg of features in the process of building the interface in Xbox 360, and we shipped with just the tip of the iceberg," concluded Glaser. "The rest is on the way."